Oklahoma Journeys
Week of February 2, 2008
Streetcars Roll in Oklahoma City
Clang, clang clang went the trolley, so the Broadway song goes, and it was in this week of 1903 that streetcars made their first appearance in Oklahoma City. Anton Classen and John Shartel were the men behind the Metropolitan Railway Company as it was first named, and that’s the story on this week’s edition of Oklahoma Journeys from the Oklahoma Historical Society.
From the Oklahoma Historical Society, this is Oklahoma Journeys. I’m Michael Dean.
On April 21, 1889, the population of what would become Oklahoma City was less than ten. A day later, after the land run, the population was in the thousands and growing by the day as people came to the area seeking land and opportunity. Two lawyers who made the land run of 1889 were Anton Classen, who first settled in Edmond, and John Shartel, who first settled in Guthrie. By the mid 1890s both men had moved to Oklahoma City and both got into the development business. Within just a few years the city’s population had grown to the point that housing was on the limit of how far people would walk to get to work. And still the population grew. Classen and Shartel had to find a way for people to get from their homes to work and back…in this the days before automobiles. In 1898 Shartel went before the city council proposing the city issue a franchise for streetcars. The council took no action. But four years later, in 1902, there were three proposals. One was submitted by Anton Classen, Henry Overholser, and Charles Colcord. In January 1902, the city council granted the franchise to the company in which Classen was a part. That company named John Shartel secretary and treasurer. Almost immediately the company started laying tracks north on Broadway to 13th Street where they built their car barn. With streetcars on the way, Oklahoma City was finally taking it’s place along side other major cities like New York, Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City, to name a few.
Almost a year went by and finally on the morning of Feb. 2, 1903, the first electric street car rolled out of the barn at 13th and Broadway to make its way south down Broadway. Thousands viewed the spectacle. On the corner of Grand (today Sheridan) and Broadway, a reporter stood next to one of the original boomers who made trips into the unassigned lands with David Payne. The reporter observed the old man’s reaction when he spotted his first electric flyer. He said, "By thunder!!! They’ve sure got them cars toted by lightning." The reporter wrote he was visibly shaken and made his way to the nearest saloon and ordered a four-finger quantum of fire water to calm his nerves.
Eventually the company became the Oklahoma Railway Company and while it provided a much-needed service, it never made much money and in fact, for most of its life, it was in receivership. The founders both died in the early 1920s. Anton Classen died on Saturday, December 30th, 1922. His long-time partner, John Shartel, died four years later on April 13, 1926. Ultimately, a number of cities around Oklahoma had streetcars…Tulsa, Sand Springs, Sapulpa, McAlester, Guthrie, and El Reno, to name a few.
You can learn more about early day Oklahoma City and other cities and town across our state by visiting the Oklahoma History Center, on NE 23rd Street just east of the state capitol in Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma Journeys is a production of the Oklahoma Historical Society, dedicated to collecting, preserving, and sharing our State’s past. I’m Michael Dean.